456 Mr. A. Chapman — Winter Notes in Spain. 



another dose of moiild-shot_, the Vulture quickly recovered, 

 and flew slowly and low to the edge of the marisma, a mile 

 away. On our second approach he was lying stretched flat 

 on the short grass, yet rose again, and after receiving two 

 more cartridges at pistol-range, flew a quarter of a mile 

 before falling dead. Subsequently I had a similar experience 

 with another ; it seems all but impossible with a shot-gun 

 to kill these huge Raptores outright ; their hard muscular 

 frames and thick sinews, tough as steel wire, appear imper- 

 vious to shot, and unless a pellet chances to take the wing- 

 bone, they will go on, though struck in a dozen places. 

 This bird proved a magnificent specimen, a male, measuring 

 9 feet 9 inches across the wings. The irides were dark, legs 

 and feet whitish, and claws black ; cere and bare skin in 

 front of neck bluish colour; tail pointed. It had no ofl'en- 

 sive smell. The whole plumage deep black-brown, the head 

 coA'ered with downy feathers of the same hue. As already 

 mentioned, the bare part of the neck during life is entirely hid- 

 den by the ruff of long lanceolate plumes which surrounds it. 

 The Spanish Imperial Eagle {Aquila adalberti) is now a 

 comparatively scarce bird in this region ; twenty years ago 

 it bred here quite commonly, but 1 only observed a single 

 adult during the two expeditions I made to the Goto de Doiiana 

 last winter. This one was engaged in a skirmish with two 

 large tawny-coloured Eagles, perhaps its own offspring. The 

 latter were numerous, some of them as pale and washed-out 

 looking as the Griflbns, others — less common — of a rich bright 

 chestnut-colour, very handsome objects as they sat on some 

 tall tree in the sunshine. The question of the specific dis- 

 tinction of the large tawny-coloured Eagles of Southern 

 Europe is, I know, a knotty problem^ demanding far more 

 experience than mine ; but I may, perhaps, narrate the fol- 

 lowing experiences as tending to show the existence in Spain 

 of a large tawny-coloured Eagle of well-marked specific 

 identity, and distinct from the immature A. adalberti. In 

 April 1883, I found a nest of one of these large Eagles on a 

 stone-pine in the Goto de Donana, and I distinctly saw the 

 old bird as she rose from the nest, about 100 yards away. 



